“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying” — Arthur C. Clarke

  Sol’s slightly dimmed rays beamed through the tall pristine buildings of New Jerusalem. It’s yellow rays glistening on the white buildings that made up UCOE’s capital. In one of these shiny white buildings, lay a man who would lead the first manned mission to another solar system. John woke up to what would be his last sunrise on Earth. He knew he had to leave soon, but he wanted to soak the sunlight in. “I wonder what the sunrises on Proxima Centauri will be like”, he wondered as his wife, Tracy, joined him on the balcony. “Hun, we gotta leave soon, the new owners of the apartment will be coming soon”, she reminded him. They had to sell their apartment, as they knew they would never be back. They made their way past the packed boxes full of all the stuff they wanted to have with them on Proxima. They loaded their flying car with all their boxes and flew to the space center. After a few minutes, they arrived at the center, where a shuttle waited to take them to Luna. When they arrived, there were crowds of spectators in the green fields, although this wasn’t the launch, just the shuttle to the moon where they would launch to Proxima Centauri b. There was a crowd and a news crew to welcome the crew to the space center. They all cheered and took photos as John, his wife, and the 14 other crew members carried their things and entered the shuttle. They would spend the rest of their days working and establishing the colony on Proxima Centauri B. The shuttle would meet up with a skyhook and sling them towards Luna without expending but a little bit of fuel.

  Luna, unlike Mars and soon Venus, had not been terraformed, as it is the main spacehub for the Earth, where 90% of all spacecraft leaving earth left to go to Mars, Venus, or beyond to Titan or Europa. If Luna was given an atmosphere, that would make space travel from it unnecessarily more difficult. It was this transformation of Luna into a spacehub which led to the establishment of Martian colonies and cities, and even the terraforming of Mars and soon Venus. The shuttle was caught by a skyhook over Luna and landed and docked. They walked through the glass tunnels of the Lunar colony towards the launchpad, specifically built for the launch of the UCS Interstellar. Here, on Luna, the crew would leave their homes and families and venture into the stars. There were crowds in the tunnels to the launchpad on Luna as well. They were cheering and welcoming the crew as they and those helping carry their stuff walked to the elevator to take them up to the UCS Interstellar

  Looking through the glass window on the elevator, they watched this massive ship show its true size. The ship was over 200 Meters long and 100 Meters wide. There were rings around it which would spin to generate artificial gravity as they traveled to Proxima. They saw the sleeping pods where they would be staying and sleeping for the next few days. They were spherical silver-colored pods visible on the outside of the rings on the back of the ship. John gripped his Bible as the elevator stopped at the top, where they put on their spacesuits and prepared to board the ship. They boarded and took their spots aboard, John took the lead seat, with his wife and another crew member to his right and left sides. “Ready for launch?” the mission control asked over the intercom. “Yes we are, mission control.” John answered, quivering on the inside with various emotions.

  As the Mission Control counted down to ignition, John thought about what his new life in another solar system could or would be like. He thought about how important this mission was to humanity. He looked at his wife Tracy, who he would spend the rest of his life with and who would eventually bear the first child in another system. Thoughts of being honored in the future as a pioneer whisked through his mind as the giant ship lifted up off the ground.

  As the Alcubierre Warp Drive technology wasn't perfected, the ship had to use a gravitational slingshot around Venus to have enough speed to initiate warp. As they journeyed to Venus, John thought of how Humanity had reached this point in progress faster than anyone thought. He thought of the Great Religion Wars of the 2100s which had united Humanity under one religion, Christianity. The Wars had united Humanity like never before, allowing unprecedented progress in space exploration and the sciences. They had mined Mercury to build a Dyson Swarm around Sol, they had terraformed Mars into a habitable planet for humans to live on, and now was almost finished with terraforming Venus as well. And now John and Humanity were making the biggest advance yet.

  When they reached Venus, John watched as the new moon of Venus, Nieth, slowly orbited around the now cooled Venus. This moon was formed from carbon dioxide ice formed after Humanity shaded and cooled Venus with colossal sized mirrors. They then mined and launched the ice formed from the atmosphere into space where it formed into a small moon approximately 840km in diameter. The Captain also watched as even more giant mirrors slowly orbited around Venus, simulating a day-night cycle for the new plants growing on the surface. As the UCS Interstellar slingshot around Venus, he wondered how long it would be before Venus was habitable and breathable by humans.

  As they prepared to initiate warp and leave the Solar System, the crew used the on-board telescope to look at all the planets for the last time. They looked at Earth and Mars especially, some of the crew had been born on Mars. They weeped as they watched their homeworlds fade into blackness as they drifted further away. “Warp initiated,” John announced, pulling the lever. The Ship thrust forward and made a Warp Bubble around it, which allowed it to warp spacetime and travel faster than the speed of light. They would reach their destination in a few days.

  5 days later

  When they arrived, they beheld the planet on which they would found their colony. It looked barren, but it had a habitable atmosphere, so it worked for the needs of humans. They prepared their ship to land and to transform into their base. And then, an alert sounded. John watched as the radar, meant for detecting incoming asteroids, detected an object approaching their spacecraft at a rapid speed. Captain John immediately went back to his pilot chair and began taking evasive action to avoid the object. He slowed down the ship to adjust his orbit so it wouldn't collide with the now accelerating object.

  As the object approached its closest point in its trajectory to the UCS Interstellar, it started to slow down itself. And as the object got closer, John's wife, Tracy, went to look at the object with the telescope. “It's… a ship!” She said, surprised. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her like she was crazy. “John, come look at this!” she said. John looked through the telescope, expecting nothing but an asteroid or meteor heading towards Proxima Centauri B. “Wha- What!?” He said, “It- Its a ship!” The ship was purple and appeared triangular, alien. It was nothing like anything on Earth. It had no visible weapons and looked to be about the same size as the UCS Interstellar.

  The Alien Spacecraft sent a radio message. Using an animation, the radio message told the crew that the aliens wanted to meet and communicate. “Return the animation back to them, hopefully they understand that we agree” John ordered. As the ship drew closer and the radio message transmitted, the Captain and his first lieutenant, Harold, put on their spacesuits, hoping that it could protect them from any alien diseases or other contamination.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  John and Harold watched as the alien Spacecraft adjusted its orbit to match up and be right beside theirs. The port on the Alien Spacecraft would not link up with theirs, so they had to go for a spacewalk in order to meet these aliens. As they approached the alien hatch, which was interestingly oval shaped and considerably taller than the UCS Interstellar’s, the hatch opened with 2 alien creatures standing there. They were tall and also with spacesuits on. John stopped for a moment and thought about the possibilities. “What if this was a trap? What if he causes war between Humans and these aliens? What if they all get killed?” All these thoughts rushed through his head as he entered the alien spacecraft.

  Upon entering, they unattached their tethers and made sure to turn on the magnets on them so they could reach the tethers again. The 2 aliens in spacesuits then closed the hatch and air started flowing back in the room. Harold reached to take off his suit and breath. “Don't,” John said, “Their air might be incredibly different to ours and we might suffocate.” The Aliens then took off their spacesuits. John hadn't been able to actually look at the spacesuits in detail as they were spacewalking. These suits were far different from theirs. They were Green and Purple and had strange antenna-like objects poking out of the helmet, perhaps a result of their head structure. There were feet on the spacesuits, but no legs, instead of legs their was a singular body where their legs would’ve been. There was a seal on the front, composed of 3 spiraling 8-pointed stars, with alien text in the middle. They took their spacesuits off, revealing their appearance. “Hello”, one of them said. Shocked, John turned to Harold, who, through the helmet John saw also had a shocked face. “Do not be alarmed” a robotic voice, different from the previous voice, chimed. “We know your language from the probe we sent, unfortunately, our vocal chords and mouth structure are not compatible with some of the sounds in your language. So, this neural translator is used. ‘Hello’ is the only word I know how to speak in your language.”

  The other alien, who appeared to be higher in authority than the other, then said something in an alien tongue to the previous alien and started walking away. “Follow us, we will take you to our captain”. As they walked, John noticed the way these creatures looked. They were green with purple eyes. They were tall creatures, at least 7-8ft tall. Their heads were tall and elongated, with 2 antenna-like attachments sticking out of the side of their heads. These antennae were short, thick, and with a ball or sphere at the end. John could only assume they were ears. On the back of their heads, they had these purple fin-like appendages that moved when they talked. They were extremely similar to fins on a fish, perhaps a goldfish, back on Earth. There were 3 pairs going down their heads, so 6 in total. When they are idle, they are tilted down, but as the 2 aliens were talking in their language amongst themselves, these “fins” moved away from their pair, vertically and horizontally. One had decorations on a few of their top fins. Piercings and chains dangled from their fins, perhaps these decorations signified an important person or position. And perhaps the fins were used to convey emotions or to emphasize something. Their language was fascinating, filled with “zh” and “oo” and “ah” sounds, but also clicks. They had no hair or other sort of insulation on their bodies. As for their faces, John didn't get a good look at them but for a brief moment as the one talked to him. But what John did notice is what appears to be 2 openings off to both sides of their mouth. These openings both were like mouths, except with only 2 “teeth”, one on top and one on the bottom. Both teeth were misaligned with one another. John couldn't tell what these were for, but perhaps he would find out. They also had long, skinny fingers, 8 of them. 3 fingers and a thumb. These creatures also wore clothing, but it was a strange clothing choice in the eyes of John and Harold. They wore long robes reaching all the way down their long legs. Perhaps these robes were responsible for the strange looking spacesuits.

  “You may be wondering what probes we referred to earlier”, the first alien’s translator beeped. “Where are my manners?” the alien said, “I am Ghuzho’ab, I am one of the crew members on this vessel. This vessel is here to colonize this system, as I’m sure yours is as well. Surely we can negotiate who gets what when we reach the Captain.” “What about the probes?”, Harold asked. “Oh, yes! If you have studied your civilization’s space observation history, you would know this probe as being called ‘Omuamua’” the alien said. “We heard your radio waves emanating from your planet, Earth, approximately 1,500 of your Earth years ago. So, the Emperor decided to send an interstellar probe to your system, the first time we’ve ever done so. It took nearly 50 of your years to get there, and 50 more to receive the data back. But when we received the data, we worked to learn about your people as much as we could. We deciphered your many languages and learned about your culture through what you refer to as “The Internet”, but I am sure a lot has changed since our probes entered your system.”

  They reached the alien bridge after a few minutes of walking. When they arrived, the entire crew stopped and looked at them. John and Harold couldn't tell their expressions or emotions, so they weren't sure what the aliens were thinking. The Aliens seemed to be prepared for this, they interestingly pointed with 2 of their fingers towards a screen in the back of their bridge. The screen lit up with a picture of their planet. Their planet was beautiful, the land was a light purple, with a dark blue ocean covering about half of it. You could see the white fluffy clouds hovering above the surface of their oceans, presumably bringing rain to their purple forests. Around the planet were 2 moons, one bigger and the other smaller. John couldn’t tell how big their planet or their moons were, but he assumed the planet was bigger than Earth, as most exoplanets are. The bigger moon was about ? the size of the planet, the smaller one was about ? the size of the planet (as far as John and Harold could tell).

  “This is”, the robotic voice said, “Ga*eb” he said himself, with a clicking sound. “Ah, that’s what the “teeth” are for”, John thought. “This is our home planet. We live in what you call the ‘Tau Ceti’ system, only 12 ‘light-years’ away from your system. “We have 2 moons”, he pointed to the larger moon, “Ehvah Ga*eb, meaning ‘Son of Ga*eb’, and Ehvahu Ga*eb, meaning ‘Daughter of Ga*eb’”. The screen then changed to a picture of a well-dressed alien, with its fins adorned in gold or something like gold. “This,” Ghuzho’ab said, “is our Emperor, or Tsa’ezhoh in our language.” The other aliens suddenly cried out “LuzhoTsa’ezhoh!” John and Harold, startled, assumed this was a hail towards their Emperor. The presentation then switched to a picture of a glorious city, filled with strange purple and green architecture, “This is our capital, Zhakutikatsuzh. It is where our Emperor and his advisors live.”

  The presentation ended and John sat in silence. The aliens watched as John thought of how to proceed. He was ashamed he didn’t have a video to present his precious homeworld. He did have one thing, however, a picture of Earth and Luna in one of his spacesuit pockets. He brought it so he could always have a reminder of his home. He unzipped his pocket and pulled out the small picture. He showed it to Ghuzho’ab, who called the other aliens, they looked and marvelled at the green color of Earth. “I’m sorry I don’t have much else to show you, but your home planet is very beautiful.”

  “Well, now that Ghuzho’ab is done bragging about our planet, let’s negotiate how to proceed.” a different robotic voice said. This time it was the Captain. “Uh. Yes, well, we are here to colonize and settle this planet, which we call Proxima Centauri b.” John said, kind of nervous. “This is our first manned expedition outside Sol, our home system.” “Yes, well, this is our 3rd expedition outside of our home system, we are also here to colonize this world. But, I noticed that you have not taken off your helmets, which tells me that our atmospheres are incompatible with one another’s.” the captain’s robotic translator chimed. “I am willing to co-exist with your people on this planet, so, I propose that we split this world in half, we both do not terraform this world, and we live in peace.” “Th- that sounds like a good deal to me, we will have to verify this deal with our Holy Senate, but I’m sure we will come to an agreement.” John stuttered.

  John and Harold went back to their ship, John's wife ran up to him when he came out of the Airlock and hugged him. “What happened?” she asked. John explained that he must contact UCOE Space Command to explain the situation and ask for orders. John ordered that the crew prepare a FTL transmitter craft, a small robotic probe equipped with its own miniature Alcubierre Warp Drive to travel faster than light, similar to robotic probes previously sent to Proxima Centauri. John uploaded the bodycam footage to the FTL transmitter and recorded his own message:

  “I have encountered aliens also attempting to colonize Proxima Centauri. Attached is footage taken from inside their spacecraft, they apparently sent a probe to Sol 1500 years ago, so they already knew about us and our language. I am transmitting this message asking for advice on how to proceed. I am hoping for peace between us, they have suggested splitting the planet between our species. I do not know what this will mean for our United Churches, but one thing I do know…

  Everything changes now”